The Kraken is reminiscent of classic mythology, like things you see in Ancient Greek Myths. Or Pirates of the Carribean 2, Dead Man's Chest. Which also had a Kraken. I think that what Tennyson is saying is that the Kraken is sleeping beneath the sea, and will until, "the latter fire shall heat the deep,"which means until Judgement day. Basically, this is a terrible monster that is lurking, "far, far beneath in the abysmal sea," in a sort of sleep. He won't be able to surface until the end of the world, when he will die. That's sort of depressing and pointless, for the Kraken. Why is Tennyson going through all the trouble to describe this ancient monster, whose life is at a complete standstill? This poem is as pointless as the monster's existence.
Break, Break, Break! obviously is talking about waves on the English shore. I think this poem captures everything we think about when we picture the sea, dark and dreary and depressing. The last bit is the most important, where Tennyson says, "the tender grace of a day that is dead Will never come back to me." Clearly, it is talking about death in this poem, especially when you look at, "But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand, And the sound of a voice that is still!" The speaker in this poem is longing for someone that is now no longer with him, someone that has passed away. When Tennyson writes about the fisherman's boy or the sailor lad, he always says, O Well! I think this is because the sea is cold and gray and the waves continue to crash and break, they don't care if people are playing or alive, there is still death and destruction, they just don't see it. That's how it always seems when people die, other outsiders are happy and go about their lives, but it feels like you'll never be happy again.
Crossing the Bar is hinting that the bar is like the threshold of life and death, so when the speaker is talking about crossing the bar, he is talking about crossing over. "I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crost the bar." The speaker is hoping to meet their maker, or God, presumably. Tennyson writes so much about the sea because England is an island. So there is a crapload of sea. Of course it makes sesne that the sea comes up as a metaphore for life and death and the afterlife.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Jennifer,
OK comments on these three poems by Tennyson, with some quotations from and observations on each. I wish you had focused on one of the three poems, though, and dug deeper in your analysis. There is much more to say, particularly connecting the quoted portion to the rest of the poem. Also, you could discuss the connection of "Break Break Break" to the death of Tennyson's best friend, Arthur Henry Hallam. The date of composition suggests the poet write this poem while still mourning Hallam.
Post a Comment